The effect of disaster knowledge on community preparedness in dealing with liquefaction disaster in Palu City, Central Sulawesi

Liquefaction occurred in Palu City on September 28, 2018 caused hundreds of casualties and thousands of buildings were damaged. The event became the Aha! Moment for many people that liquefaction disaster is real and people were not aware of the threat despite the mapping of liquefaction susceptibility in Palu had been published by Geological Agency in 2012. This study aims to analyse disaster knowledge and preparedness, as well as its influence on community preparedness in facing liquefaction. Quantitative method is used in this research by using questionnaire as primary data source to collect information regarding two variables namely disaster knowledge and community preparedness. Respondents were achieved by drawing the samples by accidental sampling. Quantitative descriptive analysis and Simple Linear Regression analysis were used to answer the objectives of this study. The results showed that disaster knowledge is in the high category generally, while community preparedness is in the medium category. Disaster knowledge has a positive and significant effect on disaster preparedness of the Palu City community in facing the threat of liquefaction, which is 43.8 with a regression coefficient of 5.013. This indicates that if disaster knowledge is higher, community preparedness will increase as well.